Second Amendment says What?

Adam Zyglis

We are now ensconced in a 2nd Amendment debate. It’s not one that anyone expected, but then again, it's one that is not at all surprising.

If you know even a little about LSR, you know what my biases are.

I do have a little cognitive dissonance these days. I am fervently and unabashedly anti-gun. I have been all my life. Yet you read on these pages how “my heart sang” when I saw Black Panthers openly holding rifles as they have a right to do in Philadelphia under the Second Amendment and Pennsylvania law. If there’s anything that scares fascists, it is a strong black person. If there’s anything that scares the piss out of fascists, it is a strong black person with a gun. 

When Traitor Tot was elected, I asked a Sister Resister, “Should I buy a gun?” It was a serious question for a very serious set of circumstances, that would eventually come to what we have today in Minneapolis. At the time, the answer from my Sister Resister, and the answer I knew in my heart, was "No!" Yet, it is still a question that lingers. Does what we are heading for demand that we all embrace our Second Amendment rights?

Let's talk about that, as well as the rest of the Constitution. 

First the facts.

This regime has been setting the stage for bigly lies literally since Day One. Sean Spicer had the audacity to lie about the tepid numbers of attendees at the Inauguration Ceremony, which we saw with our own eyes. Two days later, on January 22, 2017, Kellyanne Conway got in front of news cameras and confidently and forcefully proclaimed that we should not believe what we all saw with our own eyes because there exist “alternative facts.” 

It’s been one lie after another in this Upside Down we are living in. There were lie trackers throughout T-v.1, but I'm not sure they have been able to keep up, when there are lies upon lies before he can even take a breath, and when he is too sleepy to lie anymore, his minions have taken up the mantle. 

Time and time again, we've been told, nay demanded, that what we see and hear and know is not the truth. Many millions have fallen in line; it's a cult that keeps on culting. The rest of us, not so much. 

Now they are telling us alternative facts about a cold-blooded execution on the streets of Minneapolis. They are telling us that we should not believe our very ears and eyes. 

I call bullshit on that. Turns out, the revolution is being televised after all. 

The deadly truth of the events in Minneapolis were laid bare for all of us to see, in video after video after video, taken by brave and poised citizen witnesses with their cell phones held steady, despite the horrors that were in front of them.

The DHS posted this to try to change the reality about Alex Pretti’s murder:

We can break this down.

"An individual approached US Border Patrol." No. The "individual," whose name is Alex Jeffery Pretti, did not approach. The ICE thugs were the ones to approach Pretti. They approached, they escalated, they pushed, they pepper sprayed, they dogpiled, they beat, and they shot. 

"...with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun." No. His 9mm weapon was holstered at his back. He never unholstered the weapon. They would not have been able to know that he had a weapon on him. 

"The officers attempted to disarm the suspect." No. The Nazi thugs did not try to disarm him until he was on his belly and after they had beaten him. It was happenstance that his jacket was raised in the melee, exposing the weapon.

"The armed suspect violently resisted." Do you mean that he stumbled around, attempting to help the person that they had previously pushed to the ground, while he had tear gas in his face and ice under his feet, trying desperately to right himself? Is that what you mean by violently resisted?

"An agent fired defensive shots." This is 100% horse shit, with cow dung on top. Pretti was incapacitated and disarmed by one of the gestapo while he was on his belly, hands above his head. At no time was there a threat from Pretti that needed defending against. Correct this sentence to "An agent fired shots."

"Medics on scene immediately delivered aid." Wrong again. The officers scattered away after the 10 close-range shots, and it took 24 seconds for someone to approach Pretti's body and render aid. 

"The individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement." Fuck that shit. Pretti was on the street simply to exercise his and his fellow citizens' First, Second, Fourth, and Tenth Constitutional Amendment rights. Those were his motivations, the same as every other of the thousands of Minneapolitans bravely out in the streets that day, and every day since ICE has surged in that city.

"Law enforcement." These morons are by no stretch "law enforcement." They have not been trained in law enforcement. They couldn't recite a law if it was put in front of their rotting, tumorous grey matter. 

Ice Barbie also tried spin the irrefutable facts into alternative facts.

Reject all that shit! You all saw the videos. There are several, all from different angles. They tell the truth; how could they not? 

In case it was hard for you to discern the actions of the murderous mob that descended upon Alex Pretti in order to murder him, we have media outlets who have slowed down and analyzed the videos. 

There are no clearer facts. This young man was murdered in cold blood, and the attempts to cover it up began immediately, even before he drew his last breath. 

Consider these analyses (I'm not able to embed the excellent video analyses; please follow the links.

CNN slowed down the videos and show them side by side. Watch this analysis from CNN. 

The New York Times also analyzed the videos. Here is the distilled video version of the analysis.

The facts are clear, and we are witness to all of it. 

• Alex Pretti’s motivations in the moment was to film the events, as he has a right to do under the First Amendment, and also to protect and assist another protestor, which was his life calling as an ICU nurse.
• Alex Pretti held a permit for concealed carry in the state of Minnesota as afforded by the Second Amendment and Minnesota law.
• He was lawfully carrying a concealed handgun that day.
• He had the firearm holstered at his back.
• He was not holding it, and he was not brandishing it. It was concealed under his clothing until he was on his belly on the street, surrounded and beaten by several agents.
• He was disarmed as he was face down on the street and incapacitated by tear gas and beating.
• The gun was removed from the holster by a federal agent. 
• Alex Pretti was executed. He was murdered in cold blood, shot at close range. Nine more shots followed from one, and maybe two, shooters.

It is clear that Pretti was not brandishing the weapon, despite the lies that the tyrannical government would want you to believe. There is clear video evidence that he was disarmed during the melee, the gun being clearly removed from his back holster before he was murdered at point-blank range. 

He was not out for a confrontation; he was out to help and to document. He did not approach the agents. They were the ones who escalated the situation. They approached him, pushing him backwards and spraying tear gas at close range. They instigated the tussle on the ground.

As if shredding the rest of the U.S. Constitution wasn't enough, now these fascists are trying to rewrite Pretti's Second Amendment rights.

Little Greg the Nazi blathered lies and denied. I despise his face and so will only provide the transcript of his interview with CNN's Dana Bash.  

He said: What I'm saying is, we respect that Second Amendment right, but those rights don't -- those rights don't count when you riot and assault, delay, obstruct, and impede law enforcement officers, and most especially when you mean to do that beforehand.

BASH: How do you know that?

BOVINO: When you mean to do that -- when you mean to do that beforehand, when you show up to an active crime scene, don't leave the crime scene and you're armed, then you have got -- the decision-making process for that individual doesn't seem to be very good.

BASH: So...

BOVINO: Now, back to the Second Amendment, what you're saying about the Second Amendment is peacefully protesting with firearms, absolutely. I have done that myself and fully support that, but not when you perpetrate violence, obstruct, delay, or obfuscate Border Patrol in the performance of their duties in an active crime scene.

BASH: There's no evidence that he was perpetrating violence.

And there's no evidence, unless you have it -- and we'd love to see it if there is -- that he was intending to massacre law enforcement, other than the fact that he was there and he had a gun lawfully.

BOVINO: No, he meant to be there beforehand. Again, again, Dana, he meant -- he came there beforehand for a reason.

BASH: How do you know that? How do you know that?

BOVINO: For -- because he was there, because he was there. It's very evident.

BASH: But all he was doing was filming and documenting it, which is legal. He was carrying a gun, which in Minneapolis is legal.

BOVINO: I didn't say it wasn't. And I didn't say it wasn't legal.

BASH: So then what did he do that was illegal?

BOVINO: But he cannot assault federal law enforcement when he does that. That's an active law enforcement crime scene that he decided to enter into.

BASH: Where do you see in the video that he was assault -- where do you see in the video that he was assaulting law enforcement?

Because, from everything we have seen, law enforcement was assaulting him when he was there trying to help another individual.

BOVINO: Dana, law enforcement doesn't assault anyone. Follow directions of law enforcement. Follow directions of law enforcement in an active crime scene.

ICE Barbie said, "I don't know of any peaceful protesters that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign."

FBI Director Krazy Eyes Patel said, "you cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It's that simple. You don't have that right to break the law."

Press Secretary Barbie doubled down, neatly victim-blaming Alex Pretti while denying his Second Amendment rights in one succinct statement. 

The Conversation

All of these federal officials, sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States, are wrong. 

You know that Little Sister Resister is anti-gun. She is one that reads the Second Amendment by focusing on the word “militia,” which summarily negates the right of every ordinary Tom, Dick, and Nazi to carry a gun. 

It would be great if SCOTUS would read the Second Amendment that way, but it hasn’t. It would be great if Congress could pass laws that reflect that reading, but the extremely powerful, extremely wealthy, extremely generous-to-Members-of-Congress National Rifle Association has prevented that.

So, we have the Second Amendment, an Amendment that has been interpreted quite liberally. And we have many state laws that reflect the free and open – and free and concealed – carrying of firearms. We are a nation of laws, and those laws are the ones on the books. The law must abide.

Pretti was lawfully carrying that day. As we are a nation of laws, he had a right to have it, from the Constitution on down to Minnesota state law. 

The 2nd Amendment people – mostly, but by no means all, on the Right side of the political spectrum – have been telling us, “We need to be armed with guns in order to rise up against an tyrannical government!”

Now we have a tyrannical government, perpetrated by the Right.

Well now. 

The Gun Owners Caucus of Minnesota said about Patel's statement, he was "completely incorrect on Minnesota law. There is no prohibition on permit holder carrying a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to a protest or rally in Minnesota." They also wrote, “Every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms – including while attending protests, acting as observers, or exercising their First Amendment rights.These rights do not disappear when someone is lawfully armed.”

The NRA made a statement saying, "Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens."

So wait. LSR agrees with the NRA and the Gun Owners' Caucus?! 

Yup. We are a nation of laws. Period. Til the end of time.

I wonder what cognitive dance the cultists are performing to reconcile their belief in the Second Amendment with their belief in their Lying Leaders. I bet it goes something like this:

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A post shared by Dave Columbo (@dvdcolumbo)

Clay Bennett

In the Meantime...

Minnesotans continue to protest. They brave the cold and they brave the out-of-control brownshirts to show up and stand strong. You inspire us, Minneapolis! We thank you.

Joe Heller

The National Guard arrived in Minneapolis. They donned yellow reflective vests so as not to be confused for ICE agents. They delivered hot cocoa and donuts to protestors. That's what I'm talking about. 

Little Nazi Boy has been sent away. At first the news was that Greggy was leaving Minnesota. Now, they've removed him from his position altogether. Rumors are that he will retire soon. Buh-bye, loser. Don't let the screendoor hit you on the way out. 

There's more chatter on both sides of the aisle about getting ICE Barbie out. Fingers crossed.

Republicans are calling for a full investigation into the Pretti's murder. Democrats are threatening to shut down the government in their quest to defund ICE. 

ICE agents are becoming disillusioned about their mission and their leadership. Morale is low. I say: good. 

It appears we are at the tipping point. We are united in our outcry over the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. We the People will not stand for this brutality any more. Surely, we can only go up.

Lastly, your moments of joy. 

Amanda Gorman and Melissa McCarthy.